On 13 February 2025, the AI Lang team had an enriching meeting with Rochane Kherbouche (https://www.centre-inffo.fr/site-centre-inffo/inffo-formation/articles-dinffo-formation/rochane-kherbouche-agent-ia-collaboratif), a French AI expert and founder of a thriving WhatsApp community (IArena Éducative) focused on educational AI. Key discussion points included:

• The role of AI in supporting pedagogy, as opposed to visa-versa
• Ethical concerns about AI’s environmental impact and data protection
• Concrete examples of AI empowering teachers to enhance teaching, streamline tasks, and personalise learning
• The necessity to rethink teacher training to integrate AI in the classroom (as many French students already use AI for homework)
• The need to integrate AI into teachers’ assessment methods, rather than focus on how traditional assessment methods can be subverted by AI.

Following this initial, and highly productive meeting, which provided opportunities to learn how to use NotebookLM and customised chatbots, the AI Lang team are looking forward to future productive synergies with specialists in the field. If you have published recently about the use of AI in language teaching or are involved in initiatives about AI use, and are interested in the possibility of a meeting, please contact Achilleas Kostoulas (achilleas@kostoulas.com).

Author: Achilleas Kostoulas, coordinator of the ECML project “AI for language education” (2024-27) www.ecml.at/AI-lang (available in English and French)